GONE GIRL – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Gone Girl is a mystery-thriller based on the novel by Gillian Flynn, directed by David Fincher, and starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry. It follows the life of Nick Dunne, whose world is turned upside down when he returns to his suburban home to find his wife, Amy, missing and apparently abducted. Before long, and despite his protestations to the contrary, the police and the media have fingered Nick – who is awkward and sometimes behaves inappropriately in front of the camera – as being responsible for Amy’s disappearance. Not only that, but secrets are revealed which show that Nick and Amy’s marriage was not as idyllic as they liked to portray, leading to further scrutiny of Nick and his actions. But, of course, things are never quite as they seem in films of this type, with more revelations and twists before the final reel which I’m not going to spoil here. Suffice to say, Gone Girl is a dark, nihilistic movie with a lot of points to make about levels of trust in relationships, unreliable narration, and trials by media, although, ironically, it doesn’t work as well as an actual thriller, with numerous plot holes and illogical jumps in narrative flow. Where Fincher excels, however, is in creating an oppressive atmosphere of uncertainty, through his muted color palette, understated acting choices, and the score, by Oscar-winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Ah, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. I’ve been very vocal in the past about my dismay at their Academy Award win for The Social Network, and with the general critical and public acclaim that score, and their subsequent effort The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, attained. To me, their entire aesthetic approach to film music stands at odds with what I feel film music should aim to be – conceptually, compositionally, emotionally, everything – but I’ll get back to that in a moment. Defenders of their work often say that their scores ‘work in the film’, and that this is the only criteria by which their music should be judged. And, to be fair, on some level, I actually agree with that. Gone Girl does create an atmosphere of uneasiness, tension, and mystery, and was undoubtedly the exact sort of music that director David Fincher wanted his film to have. On those terms, Reznor and Ross succeeded entirely in what they set out to achieve. But here’s the thing; to me, the absolute bare minimum standard a film score must attain is ‘working in the film’. 99% of all film scores ever written ‘work in the film’ on some level, and so at this point my next question is “what else does it do?”

The greatest film composers all wrote film scores which worked in their films, but also took audiences on a journey. They were storytellers, almost as much as the director and screenwriter were. They were able to convey complex emotions to the audience – either overtly, in direct response to the images on the screen, or covertly, playing to the subtext or the hidden meaning of a scene. They were able to make the audience feel for the characters they were watching, and empathize with whatever situation the characters were in: love, exhilaration, danger, sadness, loss, freedom. And then they were able to pour years of musicality into their work, using interesting and intelligent compositional techniques to make their music satisfying on an intellectual level as well as an emotional one, guiding the audience through what may be difficult narrative ideas with structured thematic design, and recurring motifs, whether they be melodic or textural. From my point of view, it is when being judged under these criteria that Reznor and Ross fail entirely – not only here, but over the course of their entire film music career together.

When talking about writing the music for Gone Girl, Reznor tells a story about how David Fincher visited a chiropractor’s office to get his back massaged and, while sitting in the waiting room, was aware of music being piped through to the patients. Fincher told Reznor, “Think about the really terrible music you hear in massage parlors, the way that it artificially tries to make you feel like everything’s OK. And then imagine that sound starting to curdle and unravel.” As a conceptual starting point, that’s not a bad idea, but the irony of all this is that the music Reznor and Ross eventually wrote sounds nothing like that which Fincher described. A tiny string section and a solo piano combine with a vast array of electronic tones, most of which are little more than ambient drones, but which occasionally veer into processed noises and effects which grind, screech and whine. The mood varies little – slow, solemn, understated, almost subliminal – except for a few occasions when the score becomes intensely irritating, apparently mimicking the sound of an old dial-up modem, or some other piece of random machinery.

Cues such as the opening “What Have We Done to Each Other?,” “Empty Places,” “Something Disposable,” “Like Home,” “Perpetual,” and “A Reflection” literally do nothing other than drone aimlessly for a couple of minutes. Pieces like “Just Like You,” “Appearances,”, and the aptly-titled “Background Noise” have a more noticeable internal rhythm that is quite relaxing, almost akin to chill-out music, especially when the tinkling solo piano textures appear. However, parts of “With Suspicion” sound like the noises you hear when you clap your hands over your ears and can hear the blood rushing through your veins. The same can be said of other cues like “Clue Two,” “The Way He Looks At Me,” the vaguely dance-music infused “Secrets,” and “Consummation,” which reach simply intolerable levels of auditory awfulness. “The Way He Looks At Me” is especially notable for its incorporation of what appears to be the gasping, guttural sound of someone being strangled to death with a fax machine cord. The two “Sugar Storm” cues are a little more interesting, them having a peculiar dream-like ambience. Similarly, “Procedural” and “Technically Missing” have a little bit of pep and vigor, reprising the watery synth effects from the Sugar Storm, and combining them with a wailing electric guitar. So, you know, it’s not all bad.

Taking all this into account, I think the way the music was written led to most of the problems. In most cases, the composer writes music based on filmed footage, structuring the score to fit scenes, timing them to hit key dramatic points, and giving them the opportunity to write music that ties together characters, situations and concepts. But not Reznor and Ross; instead, they write several hours of music based on little more than descriptions of mood, which they then provide to Fincher for him to simply drop into the movie wherever he chooses. Their music is not written to accompany any specific scene, and therefore it cannot convey any specific emotion or heighten any particular nuance in, say, Affleck’s performance, a line reading, or a particularly significant event. In fact, I don’t know why Fincher even commissions original music: he would be able to achieve the exact same effect if he licensed two or three of those “Ambient Moods” CDs you can find on the $1 rack at Wal-Mart, and dropped them into his movie.

This is all the more frustrating when you look back and see the caliber of composers David Fincher has worked with in the past: Elliot Goldenthal, Howard Shore, David Shire, Alexandre Desplat, Jeff Beal. Any one of those outstanding artists would have been capable of conveying the dark, oppressive mood Fincher needed for this film, but would have increased the musical, structural and intellectual aspect of the score a thousand fold. I truly believe that, had anyone other than Reznor and Ross written this, no-one would pay it the slightest bit of attention, simply because it does nothing of note. It’s not especially groundbreaking, it’s not especially challenging, and it’s not even especially interesting. Hundreds of composers can write music like this in their sleep, and most of them can do it better, but because the guy from Nine Inch Nails wrote it, suddenly it’s on the front pages of mainstream music magazines, and it’s winning Academy Awards.

In my review of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in 2011 I stated; “When the score isn’t jarringly distracting, it’s virtually inaudible or indistinguishable from the film’s sound effects, begging the question of why the music is there in the first place. I would argue that if the score does nothing to enhance the emotion of the film because it’s either too low in the sound mix, or is written in such a way that it’s virtually indistinguishable from source music and sound effects, then what purpose does the score serve? What is its basic function? If you can’t hear it, and can’t feel it, why is it there?” The score for Gone Girl is much more audible in this film than it was in either Social Network or Dragon Tattoo, but I still stand by my question of, if it’s virtually indistinguishable from source music and sound effects, what purpose does the score serve? The lack of any emotional development beyond the general mood of uneasiness makes the film a one-note auditory bore; there is no light and shade, no ying to counterbalance the overwhelming yang. The music stops us from feeling any of the nuance or subtlety the acting or writing may have otherwise provided, because it never alters its disposition.

Worse still, on the few occasions the score does try to accentuate something specific, it picks the wrong thing to accentuate – there is one scene where someone is using the internet, and so the music immediately drops in the dial-up modem sound. What is this supposed to be telling us? We can see that the internet is being used; why do we need to hear the modem sound? What about the emotions of the character at that moment? Shouldn’t the music be telling us something about that, rather than mimicking a piece of office equipment? Reznor did something similar to this in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo when the main character walks down a hallway where an extra is using a floor buffer in the background, and at that moment the score starts to sound like a vacuum cleaner. Things like that, to me, indicate a complete lack of understanding of a film’s narrative requirements, not only on the part of Reznor and Ross, but also of David Fincher, for using the music in that way.

As an artist with Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor was genuinely groundbreaking, and will go down in history as a true pioneer, one of the greatest ever musicians of that genre. However, I just don’t buy into all the hype about his film music career. I read reviews from professional critics in well-respected music magazines, and they all laud him as though he is the individual savior of the art, someone who is finally writing the sort of edgy, avant-garde film music we have all needed all these years, but were too stupid to realize. I just don’t buy it. You want edgy and avant-garde? Listen to John Corigliano. Listen to what people like Alex North and Leonard Rosenman were doing back in the day. Heck, listen to Christopher Young when he’s at his most abstract and experimental. They make Trent Reznor seem like a floundering amateur. Yes, Gone Girl creates an appropriate mood. It “works in the film,” and as an album of ambient electronica it may be appealing to those who have an affinity for that sort of music. However, as actual film music, it’s as much as a failure as its two predecessors.

Music composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Orchestrations by Dana Niu. Recorded and mixed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Edited by Jonathan Stevens. Album produced by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

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Great review! I concur with most of your points here. I kind of liked the modem-sounding cue…not as something I would ever listen to on its own, but as a “throwback” to what we all used to experience connecting to the internet back in the day. I agree it has little to do with pushing to story forward or making an important statement…but I found it an interesting statement and it made me feel nostalgic. Although it definitely took me “out of the film”…which I think is a clue it’s not a good piece of film score.

“But here’s the thing; to me, the absolute bare minimum standard a film score must attain is ‘working in the film’. 99% of all film scores ever written ‘work in the film’ on some level, and so at this point my next question is “what else does it do?””
Fantastic Jon! I may have to use this for future reference, as this is a perfect way of defining what we expect about scores in and out of context.

In general, brilliant review. Your wording and description of the sound effects, ‘instrumentation’ and general mood was really good, and you really got to the heart of why this fails as a film score. Great piece of reading material!

I think your review is a bit too much emotionally charged. Reznor and Ross’ music clearly isn’t the traditional type of film score, but it seems to me that you dislike it simply for that fact alone.

What music do you like beside filmmusic? What genres do you listen to?

Or, even better, could you name me an electronic, ambient-like film score that you actually enjoy? I noticed you didn’t list The Dust Brothers in Fincher’s past filmmusic collaborations. Why is that? Because it also isn’t the traditional, classical type of music we’re normally used to?

I’m not trying to be offensive and I hope you take my questions seriously. It’s just that I’ve found some statements within your review, that – in my eyes – simply aren’t truthfully.

“The music stops us from feeling any of the nuance or subtlety the acting or writing may have otherwise provided, because it never alters its disposition.”

I can’t believe you’re saying that. Did we really listen to the same score?

I’ve enjoyed some electronic and/or non-classical scores. For example, Peter Gabriel, who just as Trent Reznor, has a wide musical background and is known to be groundbreaking, has composed some really interesting soundtracks. The difference is that all of these efforts succeeded to tie together characters, situations and concepts, and develop sentiments. Take the time to listen Slow Water from Birdy, Moodoo’s Secret from Long Walk Home or Sandstorm from Passion. There are not even traces of an orchestra in them, but they successfully convey oppressive and mysterious moods with no difficulty.

In my opinion, if the film requires it, it is possible to compose a completely electronic score without losing the emotional weight, letting dull drones extend for minutes or launching sounds aimlessly.

It seems to me that Fincher has caught the same bug that Christopher Nolan has: he wants a large mass of music composed ahead of time that he can then cut to picture like a temp track. It’s kind of a dismaying attitude even if you like the composer in question.

First comment here, but I read most of your review, and just wanted to say that they interest me a lot. Good job.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, and didn’t manage to listen to the full score (I was much too bored after 20 minutes) : I’ll try again soon, in order to be able to make a real opinion on the complete thing.

Fairly contradicting. You complain that it’s not like traditionak music scores (um, yeah). Then later, you complain that everyone is saying “this is what’s been missing from soundtracks”. So maybe not contradicting, but not putting the pieces together. Living in the past. Social Network works Phenominally. TGWTDT is a bit different. Almost constantly there, in the background. It’s not traditional, and that’s the point. If you don’t like it, fine, but comparing it to a $1 cd is pretty immature. I’d like to see you make music like this, if it’s so “easy”.

I wasn’t comparing the music to a $1 CD. I was commenting on Fincher’s working method of commissioning music BEFORE THE COMPOSER SEES THE FILM, and how he is basically using Reznor & Ross’s compositions as a chillout/mood music sampler album. That’s not an opinion – it’s a statement of fact of how David Fincher uses music.

And as for your comment of “I’d like to see you make music like this, if it’s so “easy” – well, get me a vacuum cleaner, a fax machine and a microphone. I’ll record them, press note key on a synthesizer for four minutes, and it’s be a pretty close approximation. 😉

But seriously – I don’t have to be able to do something myself to know if it’s any good or not. I haven’t been to culinary school, and I don’t work in a Michelin-starred restaurant, but I know when my meal is burned.

Don’t listen to this guy’s opinion. Jonathan “Chicken Nugget” Broxton knows nothing about film music. You can tell from this review. This review just OOZES the type of self importance that all of these film music “reviewers” like to pretend they have.

The hard truth is that nobody cares about Jonathan’s reviews. Nobody even reads them. Real film music fans just scroll to the end to find the star rating. The “Chicken Nugget” caught on to this a few months back, and he tried to hide the stars, but now he’s thinking of reversing the decision because his (already puny) reader-base completely disappeared.

On to the score: once again, Jonathon Broxton is just trying to get clicks with his “hipster” opinions. Everyone who isn’t stuck up can clearly see that “Gone Girl” is a fine score. Movie reviewers, moviegoers, and even stars like Ben Affleck are acknowledging the greatness of this score. Composers like Reznor are pushing the bounds of what we call “music,” unlike sloths like Debney (a friend of Broxton’s, by the way) who constantly steal greatness from those before them. This score sets the mood of the film very well. What more could you ask for?

The man knows more about film music than you can possible imagine. Indeed it is one of the reasons we elected him President of our organization, the IFMCA. Having known him, unlike you, to say that he is full of self-importance is patently false. He is a modest man with a fine self-deprecating humor. So you could not be more wrong, but then again you do not know him do you.

The thousands of hits we get on this site refute your perposterous and patently false claim that no one cares about his reviews. You know, facts are very inconvenient to people such as you. Speaking in a public forum and making baseless accusations without supportive facts embarasses you.

So you think this is a fine score? Here is my Facebook post. The score, and I am generous referring to it as such, is irredeemably flawed. I see no difference between the guys that create explosions, creaking floors, or weapons fire than this team who offers sound effects masquerading as art. Their sound effects lack feeling, intelligence and congruency. They exist in a separate reality from the film, apparently unable to comprehend let alone emote the torrent of dark emotions this sordid film portrayed and demanded. The fact that they wrote set pieces based solely on mood, which the director cut and pasted into the film is a damning indictment, and frankly a travesty. I blame Fincher more than his hapless hired help. Jon Broxton’s fine review at Movie Music UK is illuminating. Check it out.

Mood is not enough. Speaking to the characters emotional drivers is what is needed. If you want mood music, go ride an elevator.

The pomposity of you so-called soundtrack afficionados that you know better than directors what is good for their film is unbelievable. When The Social Network was nominated for an Oscar it was nominated by fellow composers http://www.oscars.org/oscars/voting
But I guess what do they know compared to some geeks who think being really into the Star Wars soundtrack makes them some amazing authority on classical music?

First of all: I concurr with Broxton in every point he made. Regarding those who say that his review is biased: It is difficult for a reviewer to remain neutral, when the likes of Reznor, Ross and even Zimmer constantly hammer out Statements the like of “Yeah, and here i singlehandedly reformed Filmmusic. There is no place for Orchestra or even real instruments anymore. Im the future!” To those statements a reviewer can only act defensive to what we – I presume – deem a more pleasant and interesting listening experience. And this has nothing to do with electronics: Most reviewers were extremely blown away by Michael Prices Gravity or – when going towards Videogame Music – Destiny. It is the constant hype surrounding Ross, Raznor and co. which makes their music so irritating. Other composers deliver intellectually challenging and beautiful blends of orchestra and synthetics after years of hard work with almost no one noticing and along come the popstars of film music, making a huge medial romp and dishing out the same formulaic music as always, being lauded as the inventors of fire. And then again: Having fanboys flooding every single forum with hatred doesnt help bridging the gap anymore.

When has Reznor said anything about “being the future”, about “having reformed film music”, or about “there is no place for orchestra”???

Reznor’s and Ross’ scores are just fantastic. The author of this review just doesn’t like their music or just doesn’t get the hype or whatever, maybe he just prefers more classical scores with orchestras and everything, but not everybody agrees with his opinion, a lot of people like their scores, and it’s not just because of some retarded fad, it’s just good music, I can listen to it and then listen to Bernard Herrmann’s works and I love both styles, I don’t see why I should choose between classic orchestral scores and electronic experimental scores when I can enjoy both.

I think the real issue here is that the author doesn’t seem to hear the subtle distinctions among all the elements of electronic music, at least not to the extent he hears them in a classical orchestra. This is understandable, given his background. So while I found the review to be very thoughtful and sincere, i think it boils down to the fact that while he can listen to Jimmy, he can’t hear Jimmy.

So, yet again, everyone seems to have completely missed the point I was making in the review, so I will spell it out very clearly.

I did not want this score to have a “traditional orchestral score”. Giving this music a dark, moody synth score, with a sense of oppression and mystery WAS EXACTLY THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

What I’m criticizing is the lack of quality that in Reznor and Ross’s realization of David Fincher’s vision: the poor narrative flow of the music, the poor spotting choices, the lack of a coherent structure in the music, and the lack of emotional content. If any other composer has written music that sounded exactly like this, it would have been ignored for being poor music; all the good press Reznor is getting is due to who he is, and his (genuine) greatness as a member of NIN.

It’s clear what you are criticizing. But again, i think you just missed them. Just because you don’t see a coherent structure, narrative flow, or emotional content doesn’t mean they are not there. I guess that is frustrating.

I admire this review, it’s good to see someone unafraid to criticize Trent Reznor, since it seems a taboo to do so.
I haven’t listened the whole soundtrack yet, but it’s, like the previous ones, once again Trent Reznor (with Atticus Ross) didn’t manage to accurately “fit” the soundtrack into the film. It’s a pity to listen that he never goes far from Nine Inch Nails’ sonority (which I’m a fan, by the way); technically is crafty, very well produced, but insists with samples, loops, distortions and other means to make songs that in all the films he scored always sound misfit, and so not rarely deviating from the emotions he was supposed to pass to the viewers, serving as distractions. At least the tracks aren’t so lengthy (except the last one).
If only Trent used the Nine Inch Nails moniker he’d be honest with everybody, including himself. I wish he tried to explore new musical directions, which wouldn’t sound like Nine Inch Nails. Unfortunately it’s unlikely to happen.

Sorry, but Nine Inch Nails has deviated in sound on every major LP that has been released. no two albums ever sound a like, and no two scores sound a like either, whether this be from the Quake soundtrack, to the TGwtDT score.

listen to Pretty Hate Machine, and then go listen to Year Zero. they do not sound the same period. listen to Broken, then listen to With Teeth. another pair that do not sound the same at all. same with Downward Spiral to Ghosts I-IV and The Fragile to Hesitation Marks. every album has a unique sound that no other album has replicated. the only project that may sound like NIN, is the one he collaborates with his wife, in How to Destroy Angels.

Luk4thi

October 16, 2014 at 12:00 am

Don’t be sorry. I’m perfectly aware of the musical changes Nine Inch Nails has been through in its discography, and that’s a good thing. That’s not the issue here. It is that Trent Reznor has a immense difficulty to let go of Nine Inch Nails’ “musical persona”, so to reiterate, all his side projects sound like a extension or variation of Nine Inch Nails, and in “Gone Girl” was no different. Unfortunately, it compromises the score itself as it often doesn’t quite blend with the movie, as I had explained, as well as the reviewer (much better than me).

I admire this review, it’s good to see someone unafraid to criticize Trent Reznor, since it seems a taboo to do so.
I haven’t listened the whole soundtrack yet, but it’s, like the previous ones, once again Trent Reznor (with Atticus Ross) didn’t manage to accurately “fit” the soundtrack into the film. It’s a pity to listen that he never goes far from Nine Inch Nails’ sonority (which I’m a fan, by the way); technically is crafty, very well produced, but insists with samples, loops, distortions and other methods to make songs that, in all the films he scored always sound misfit, and then not rarely deviating from the emotions he was supposed to pass to the viewers, serving as distractions. At least this time the tracks aren’t so lengthy (except the last one).
If only Trent used the Nine Inch Nails moniker he’d be honest with everybody, including himself. I wish he tried to explore new musical directions, which wouldn’t sound like Nine Inch Nails. Unfortunately it’s unlikely to happen.

Given the rationale you’ve provided for what makes a great score, I’m interested to learn about your dismay over Reznor and Ross’ win for The Social Network. In a film that explores the fragmentation of our lives from the real-world to online, what score could be more perfect than one that explores the evolution of synthesis from the analog to the digital?

I find this review very interesting, even if I liked this score in the movie. I haven’t listened the soundtrack without the movie yet and perhaps will I be disappointed too. But even if I like it eventually it doesn’t matter : this review is fantastic and I will continue to read this blog. I agree about Christopher Young, he’s a great composer (my favorite is Species). And I will try to discover Alex North and Leonard Rosenman’s scores.
But I know for sure Gone Girl is not my favorite synthetic score : in this kind of music my favorite is Vangelis’ Blade Runner.